Littered among the nightly skies are wonderful constellations of humans, objects, and animals. There are 88 constellations to be exact and they are all based on Greeco-Roman stories. Each story is interesting in its own way but my favorites are the mythical animals. Here I shall give a brief description of some of the mythological animals as well as an image of its constellation. You can mouse over the group of stars to see it in both an allegorical way, in blue, and in the new graphic way, in light blue. There are other animals that I enjoy a lot but I will only include three because that is the required amount and my page will take long enough to load as it is.
| The Phoenix is a southern hemisphere constellation that is made of nine stars. It is based on the great mythical sun bird which was said to live for 500 years and then burn itself in a nest shaped like a funeral pyre. After three days the bird rises again from its ashes. Actually the amount of years that it lives is unclear and differs from story to story, but the number 500 appears most often. |
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| The Capricorn is also a Southern constellation that is very faint. This animals was meant to be a complete goat but, while only half complete, the dragon Typhon chased it and caused it to jump into the sea. There the goat's hind end turned into that of a fish. Another story says that Capricorn was Pan, a satyr, who also had to escape from Typhon, but I think the first story is more accurate and plus I like it more. |
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| The Pegasus is a brighter constellation compared to the other two, and it is found in the northern hemisphere. Sometimes the allegorical representation of this constellation shows the whole animal, but I am told that this way is incorrect and that only the front part of this animal makes up the constellation. This way is also true for Taurus, the bull. Pegasus is probably the best known pterippus and may even be the one who started the species. It was born from the blood of Medusa that mixed with sea sand and was later tamed by the hero Bellerophon who used him to battle the Chimera. |
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